Fifth-annual Citizen’s Police Academy kicks off in Biloxi
BILOXI, Miss. (WXXV) — The fifth-annual Biloxi Police Department Citizen’s Police Academy kicked off on Thursday night, and participants will spend the next few weeks working closely with law enforcement officers.
“It’s an opportunity for us to bring citizens from Harrison County in kind of behind the scenes of the police department,” Lieutenant Candace Young explained. “So, it really gives people an opportunity to get a sneak peek, kind of see behind the curtain what goes on in a police department.”
The program includes classroom-based lessons, introductions to the department’s special units, K-9 officer demonstrations, a patrol ride-along and even a few hands-on opportunities, with graduation taking place in October. Participants this year will even have the opportunity to try out a new activity.
“This year we’re adding a new element of VR,” Young explained. “We have this really great virtual reality taser training that they’re going to get to play with for the first time ever, so it’s a lot of cool stuff.”
Overall, the program aims to help attendees learn how the different units within the department serve the entire community, as well as how they can work together to enhance the city of Biloxi. It’s been extremely successful since it started.
“Usually our graduates are big proponents of the program,” Young said. “They usually leave out of here happy, more knowledgeable and typically have a better — if they didn’t come in already with a good kind of outlook on the police department — they kind of understand what we go through a little bit better.”
As Young said, one of the most important aspects of the program isn’t what happens inside the four walls of the station: it’s what happens afterwards.
“To me, the biggest benefit isn’t necessarily the people that come in and participate in it, it’s the people in the community that they go and tell about all the cool stuff they did with the police department,” Young explained. “So, it’s really a widespread kind of getting the information out there to the community that’s beneficial to us and to them. Because at the end of the day, we’re a partnership with our community.”
